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Peanuts (1997 adult TV series)
Peanuts is an American adult animated sitcom created by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, loosely based on Charles M. Schulz's comic strip of the same name and developed by Brian Graden for the Fox Broadcasting Company. The show revolves around the five main characters Snoopy, Charlie, Sally, Linus and Lucy and their bizarre adventures in and around their hometown, South Park, Colorado. Unlike Schulz's original comics and all previous Peanuts animated media, this series uses a very large ensemble cast of recurring characters and became infamous for its profanity and dark, surreal humor that satirizes a wide range of topics towards a mature audience. Parker and Stone loosely developed the show from The Spirit of Christmas, two consecutive animated shorts based on Peanuts created in 1992 and 1995. The latter became one of the first Internet viral videos, ultimately leading to the production of an adult TV show based on Peanuts, buying the TV rights to Schulz's strip. It debuted on August 13, 1997 with great success, consistently earning the highest ratings of any basic cable program. Subsequent ratings have varied but it remains one of Fox's highest rated shows, and is slated to air through at least 2019. In one of his last interviews before his death in 2000, Schulz said he always hated this TV incarnation because it was unfaithful to his comics and vision, as well as its off-color humor, sexual innuendo, dark humor, adult jokes, violence and crude language (things that he never used in his strips), and Snoopy speaking. But then again, he decided not to say another word because of its success. Premise Setting and characters The show follows the exploits of a dog and four kids, Snoopy, Charlie & Sally Brown and Linus & Lucy van Pelt. The five live in the fictional small town of South Park, Colorado. The town is also home to an assortment of frequent characters such as students, families, elementary school staff, anthropomorphic animals, and other various residents, who tend to regard South Park as a bland and quiet place to live. Prominent settings on the show include the South Park Elementary School, the bus stop, various neighbourhoods, and the shops and businesses along the town's main street. Snoopy is an anthropomorphic white labrador dog that is owned by Charlie and Sally, as well as their parents, and constantly speaks with an Eastern European accent. He fulfills a comic, antihero-type role, as he is foul-mouthed, heavy-drinking, cigar-smoking, kleptomaniacal, misanthropic, egocentric, ill-tempered, self-centered, self-interested, devious, cheater and homicidal, but also loving and caring towards his friends and family. Charlie is portrayed as the everyman of the group, as the show's website describes him as an "average, American 4th grader". Sally is an intelligent and short-tempered nerd, and her portrayal in this role is often dealt with satirically. Charlie and Sally are caring to each other, and their sibling bond, symbolically intended to reflect Parker and Stone's friendship, is a common topic throughout the series. Lucy is loud, obnoxious, and amoral, often portrayed as an antiheroine. Her anti-Semitic attitude has resulted in a progressive rivalry with Sally, although the deeper reason is the strong clash between Sally's strong morality and Lucy's complete lack of such. Linus is a dimwitted and happy-go-lucky boy who always carries a blue blanket with himself. Despite his mental setbacks, Linus still sees himself as intelligent. During the show's first three seasons, the kids were in the third grade. In the season four episode "4th Grade" (2000), they entered the fourth grade, but have remained there ever since. Characters Main *Snoopy (voiced by Trey Parker) - A anthropomorphic labrador and the main protagonist. Unlike other dogs, he's able to speak like humans and do things that humans would do, like cooking, building, raping women, killing some bully's parents and making him/her eating them in Chilean hot sauce, driving wildy and having trouble with the police. *Charlie Brown (voiced by Matt Stone) - A boy and one of Snoopy's owners, he is is a third-then fourth-grade student who commonly has extraordinary experiences not typical of conventional small-town life in his hometown of South Park. In many episodes, Charlie often reflects on the lessons he, Sally, Linus and Lucy have attained with a speech that often begins with "You know, I learned something today...". *Sally Brown (voiced by Mary Kay Bergman in 1997-1999, Eliza Schneider in 1999-2003 and April Stewart in 2004–present) - Charlie's sister and one of Snoopy's owners. In some instances, Sally is the only child in her class to not initially indulge in a fad or fall victim to a ploy. This has resulted in both her eagerness to fit in, and her resentment and frustration. She also has an obsessive crush over Linus, even though he doesn't feel the same way. *Linus van Pelt (voiced by Trey Parker) - a dimwitted, immature and happy-go-lucky boy. He carries around a light blue blanket which is his most valued possession. He runs a lemonade stand. *Lucy van Pelt (voiced by Mary Kay Bergman in 1997-1999, Eliza Schneider in 1999-2003 and April Stewart in 2004–present) - Linus' older sister. She is a tough girl not to be messed with, as other children and classmates are alienated by Lucy's insensitive, racist, homophobic, anti-semitic, misogynistic, self-righteous, and wildly insecure behavior. Lucy often makes insults towards Sally, particularly manipulates and mistreats Butters Stotch and/or Kenny McCormick, aside from constantly teasing the latter for being poor, and displays an extreme disdain for both Jew people and hippies, but she always recives consecuences for that. As a recurring gag, she is usually arrested for crimes she commits around a episode. *Leopold "Butters" Stotch (voiced by Matt Stone) - A cheerful, naive, optimistic, sweet-natured, gullible and more passive relative to the show's other child characters, and can become increasingly anxious, especially when faced with the likelihood of his father's abuse and punishments, which is usually being grounded, usually for no good reason, such as when Butters threatened to "kill" himself as part of a scheme by Snoopy, and his father said he would ground him for two weeks if he came down, until Snoopy frames him for robbing a bank in order to protect Butters. He once became a official part of the main cast when he was chosen as one of Linus and Lucy's replacements after they were temporarily moved out to other town in the season five finale, but he eventually gets ousted after five episodes and vengefully adopts his supervillain alter ego of Professor Chaos, whom, in spite of his name, only seems to be able to screw things up that either nobody takes notice of, or can be easily resolved. Despite this, Butters continues to be a major character in recent seasons. *Spike (voiced by Vernon Chatman) - Snoopy's brother. He is a drug addict and an idiot. He speaks like a beatnik, and is usually seen either annoying to humans or, more often, getting high on cannabis and voicing his permanent confusion. He usually stars in episodes where the other six main characters make a minor role or not appear. Secondary *Belle (voiced by April Stewart) - Snoopy's sister, she is usually portrayed as a happy-go-lucky beagle who is unlucky. She mainly stars in episodes where Snoopy and his human companions not appear. *Woodstock (voiced by Frank Welker) - A bird and Snoopy's best friend and companion. He talks in bird vocals, which only Snoopy is able to know he says, despite he usually mistakes Woodstock says, since subtitles, saying other things, appear when he talks. *Wendy Testaburger (voiced by Mary Kay Bergman in 1997–1999, Eliza Schneider in 1999–2003 and April Stewart in 2004-present) - She is the show's most prominent female supponing character. Her best friend is Bebe Stevens, and she is the on-and-off girlfriend of Charlie. She is temporarily one of Linus and Lucy's replacements during the sixth season. She is a uploaded version of the Little Red-Haired Girl from Schultz's original comics. *George Liquor (voiced by John Kricfalusi until 2018) - The main characters' adult neighbor, who is so conservative "that he thinks the Republicans are Commies". Following Kricfalusi's firing in 2018, the character was retired. *Kenny McCormick (voiced by Matt Stone) - One of the main characters' classmates, who wears his parka hood so tightly that it covers most of his face and muffles his speech. Kenny always dies in almost every single episode he appears, usually as a result of one of Snoopy's shenanigans, before returning in the next without explanation. He rarely had major roles, most notably when he is temporarily one of Linus and Lucy's replacements during the sixth season and in the Coon and Friends three-part story arc, where he is revealed to be the superhero, Mysterion. *Peppermint Patty "Patricia" Reichardt (voiced by Mary Kay Bergman in 1997–1999, Eliza Schneider in 1999–2003 and April Stewart in 2004-present) - The friend of Marcie. She always gets D-minuses and she is the dumbest person in her school (sometimes interesting too). *Marcie Johnson (voiced by Mary Kay Bergman in 1997–1999, Eliza Schneider in 1999–2003 and April Stewart in 2004-present) - The friend of Peppermint Patty. She always call Peppermint Patty "Sir". She is also very smart. *Franklin Armstrong (voiced by Adrien Beard) - An African-American kid who was born from a rich family. *Pig-Pen Dustson (voiced by Trey Parker) - A kid who is one of the main characters' friends. He is so dirty that he can dust up a cloud in a duststorm. *Schroeder "Beethoven" Benny (voiced by Trey Parker) - A blond-haired kid, and one of the main characters' friends. He is a fan of Ludwig van Beethoven, and a master at playing the piano, harpsichord, and electric keyboard. *Violet Gray (voiced by Mary Kay Bergman in 1997–1999, Eliza Schneider in 1999–2003 and April Stewart in 2004-present) - *Patty Willbarrow (voiced by Mary Kay Bergman in 1997–1999, Eliza Schneider in 1999–2003 and April Stewart in 2004-present) - *Frieda Curlyhair (voiced by Mary Kay Bergman in 1997–1999, Eliza Schneider in 1999–2003 and April Stewart in 2004-present) - *Sherman "Shermy" Smith (voiced by Trey Parker) - *The Great Pumpkin (voiced by Eric Bauza) - Appears only on the Season 12 premiere, but he's fake, and he is a part of Linus's beliefs. However, he comes to life thanks to Linus' imagination and ends up chasing Linus and Sally, after realizing that humans eat pumpkin. *The Red Baron - Snoopy's unseen archnemesis. *Tweek Tweak (voiced by Matt Stone) - The main characters' hyperactive and paranoid classmate due to an excessive intake of coffee, although his parents believe it to be because of ADD. He is temporarily one of Linus and Lucy's replacements during the sixth season. *Bebe Stevens (voiced by Jennifer Howell) - The main characters' blonde, female classmate and Wendy's best friend. *Bradley Biggle (voiced by Matt Stone) - One of the main characters' classmates, who appears as a background character in most episodes until the Coon and Friends story arc. *Clyde Donovan (voiced by Trey Parker) - One of the main characters' classmates and considered himself as the cutest of the class. He accidentally caused the death of his mother by leaving the toilet seat up. *Craig Tucker (voiced by Matt Stone) - One of the main characters' classmates, who used to antagonize them. He frequently gave the middle finger to authority figures then denies doing so in the early seasons. *Dougie (voiced by Trey Parker) - A first-grader who assumes the role of General Disarray, sidekick to Butters' supervillain alter-ego Professor Chaos. *Jimmy Valmer (voiced by Trey Parker) - One of the main characters' two handicapped classmates and an amateur standup comedian. He stutters a lot when he talks due to his disability. *Timmy Burch (voiced by Trey Parker) - One of the main characters' two handicapped classmates, whose vocabulary is mostly limited to the enthusiastic shouting of his own name. *Randy Brown (voiced by Trey Parker) - Charlie and Sally's idiotic father, who worked as a geologist. He was depicted to work at the South Park Center for Seismic Activity, and was later shown to work for the U. S. Geological Survey. He was briefly fired from his geologist job near the end of the 12th season, and quit briefly during the end of the 14th season, but has since been-rehired both times. He also serves on the city council, specializing in the town's parks and public grounds. Like Snoopy, he gets involved in stupid things such as becoming a celebrity chef and getting into baseball fights. *Rocko van Pelt (voiced by Trey Parker) - Linus and Lucy's abusive father who attacks Lucy. *Liane van Pelt (voiced by Mary Kay Bergman in 1997–1999, Eliza Schneider in 1999–2003 and April Stewart in 2004-present) - Linus and Lucy's good-natured mother who mostly spoils her daughter rotten. *Mr. Garrison (voiced by Trey Parker) - The main characters' former teacher. He first had a sex change operation during season nine, before changing it back during season twelve. He is currently the president of the United States of America. *Sheila Broflovski (voiced by Mary Kay Bergman in 1997–1999 and Mona Marshall in 1999–present) - Snoopy's nemesis who is an Jewish woman who is overbearing and usually overreacts to anything slightly offensive. *Mr. Mackey (voiced by Trey Parker) - The school guidance counselor. He has a disproportionately large head and mumbles "M'kay" into most sentences. He speaks with a Southern accent, and he is believed to be from Louisiana. He is at least 48 years old. He has occasionally taught classes at the school, and taught sex education with Ms. Choksondik. *Zach Brown (voiced by Trey Parker) - Charlie and Sally's violent, snobbish, ill-tempered and mischievous teenager brother who usually bullies Lucy. *Ike Brown (voiced by various children of Peanuts employees) - Charlie, Sally and Zach's younger brother, the Canadian-born adopted son of Randy and Sharon. *Joey (voiced by Matt Stone) - A idiotic fat teenager who is Zach's reclutant partner-in-crime. *Chef (voiced by Isaac Hayes) - The school's chef and good friend of the main characters. He was once killed at the beginning of the tenth season, but was later brought back to life as Darth Chef. Despite this, he never appears again after his resurrection. Episodes Peanuts (1997 adult TV series)/Episodes Origins and creation Beginnings: 1989-1992 An idea for a Peanuts animated sitcom was envisioned as early as 1984. And in March 1989, production began on a new short about Native American History, featuring the prototype characters. The animation was done with a mixture of hand-drawn animation and stop-motion and the audio was recorded on audio tape, thus mixing the tracks onto 8mm film. The short was successful in-between mixed reviews and it did not really establish the Peanuts characters yet. At this point, Lucy and Linus were originally portrayed here as unnamed original characters. The brother had childlike innocence as Linus in the latter show, while the sister had no trace of crabbiness or being madly obsessed with Schroeder at all. This short cast the two as a polite Native American sister and brother trying to make friends with the Puritans. Soon after meeting in film class at the University of Colorado in 1992, Trey Parker and Matt Stone began work on a short film. After discovering a mutual interest for Charles M. Schulz's Peanuts comic strip, Parker and Stone decided to adapt the comics. They bought the rights to Peanuts and wrote down the storyline for a short entitled The Spirit of Christmas. They animated the film using only construction paper, glue and a very old 8 mm film camera, and premiered it at the December 1992 student film screening. The film features four children very similar in appearance to three of the four main characters of Peanuts, including a character resembling Lucy but called "Penny", a kid resembling Linus and two others similar in appearances and voices to Charlie and Sally Brown. Development of the show: 1995-1997 In 1995, after seeing The Spirit of Christmas, Fox executive Brian Graden paid Stone and Parker $1,000 to make another animated short as a video Christmas card that he could send to friends. In turn, the duo created Peanuts and the Spirit of Christmas: Jesus vs. Santa. Graden initially distributed the video to eighty friends in December 1995. After months' being passed around on bootleg video and the Internet, Graden then decided pitch up a series based on both the original comics and the short for Fox, which premiered in the United States with the episodes Snoopy Goes To Mars and Lucy Gets an Anal Probe on August 13, 1997. This version of The Spirit of Christmas features an traditionally animation style indentical to Charles M. Schulz's original drawing style, which it is used in the eventual Peanuts series, as well as more developed versions of Snoopy (who was added to the short for remaining part of Schulz's original humor), Charlie, Sally, Lucy and Linus (each of whom are referred to by name) living in a city named South Park. Unlike the other version, Larry Leichliter and all the other Mendelson/Melendez animators (not counting Bill Littlejohn) animated this short despite not being a kids' special. Later recurring characters created for the series Wendy Testaburger and Kenny McCormick appear unnamed in non-speaking roles as children sitting on Santa's lap. The film largely establishes the characters as they are used in the show and contains elements that recur in the series, such as Snoopy speaking, Charlie and Sally being kind to one another, adult characters beign fully shown and speaking normally instead of the mute trombone "wah-wah" sounds, and rats eating Kenny McCormick's corpse. The film reportedly had a budget of $750, with Parker and Stone keeping the remainder of their commission. Production An episode takes three or six months to complete, although multiple episodes would be worked on at the same time. Animation The animation for the pilot was done using hand-drawn animation. All subsequent episodes used Toon Boom Harmony simulating the old hand-drawn style. Recurring gags Usually, the series have various recurring gags, but here's the most famous ones: *'Kenny's Deaths' - Recurring character Kenny McCormick's manner of death changes from episode to episode, and usually features someone or something that fatally hurts him. A typical gag features the culprit or accident (the latter usually as a result of one of Snoopy's shenanigans) killing Kenny, followed by the phrases "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" and "You bastards!" from Charlie and Sally, respectively. Trey Parker and Matt Stone have said that the "You bastards!" line (often used even for deaths by inanimate objects/accidents) is actually directed towards said creators, for writing the death into the script. In more recent seasons (starting with Season 15), the gags occur only a few times. *'Animated Cameos' - Some episodes usually include various other animated media characters in cameos. (For example: Snoopy destroying a house, to which it reveals Ren and Stimpy having sex with female versions of them) **'Ain't I an Asshole?' - During a non-sense scene or when Lucy receives consequences for her activities, The camera draws back and reveals Bugs Bunny at a drawing table drawing the scene (a reference to the Daffy Duck cartoon Duck Amuck), who turns around and says to the audience: "Ain't I an asshole?". *''White Trash In Trouble'' - a fictional television show which documents the arrests of "White Trash" people (usually the culprit or some other person). The introduction of the show claims that Pabst Blue Ribbon, combined with being "White Trash" can make anyone "not help getting arrested". The catchphrase of this show is "I'm white trash and I'm in trouble!" which the white trash people are forced to say. Voice cast Parker and Stone voice most of the male Peanuts characters, while Snoopy was voiced by John Kricfalusi until 2018, when he was replaced by Parker, who currently voices Snoopy. Mary Kay Bergman voiced the majority of the female characters until her suicide on November 11, 1999. Mona Marshall and Eliza Schneider succeeded Bergman, with Schneider leaving the show after its seventh season (2003). She was replaced by April Stewart, who, along with Marshall, continues to voice most of the female characters. Bergman was originally listed in the credits under the alias Shannen Cassidy to protect her reputation as the voice of several Disney and other kid-friendly characters. Stewart was originally credited under the name Gracie Lazar, while Schneider was sometimes credited under her rock opera performance pseudonym Blue Girl. Other voice actors and members of Peanuts's production staff have voiced minor characters for various episodes, while a few staff members voice recurring characters; supervising producer Jennifer Howell voices student Bebe Stevens, co-producer and storyboard artist Adrien Beard voices Franklin Armstrong, who was the school's only African-American student until the introduction of Nichole in "Snoopy Finds Love", writing consultant Vernon Chatman voices Snoopy's brother Spike, and production supervisor John Hansen voices Mr. Slave, the former gay lover of Mr. Garrison. Throughout the show's run, the voices for toddler and kindergarten characters have been provided by various small children of the show's production staff. When voicing child characters, the voice actors speak within their normal vocal range while adding a childlike inflection. The recorded audio is then edited with Pro Tools, and the pitch is altered to make the voice sound more like that of a fourth grader. Isaac Hayes voiced the character of Chef, an African-American, soul-singing cafeteria worker who was one of the few adults Snoopy and the gang consistently trusted. Hayes agreed to voice the character after being among Parker and Stone's ideal candidates which also included Lou Rawls and Barry White. Hayes, who lived and hosted a radio show in New York during his tenure with Peanuts, would record his dialogue on a digital audio tape while a respective episode's director would give directions over the phone, then the tape would be shipped to the show's production studio in California. After Hayes left the show in early 2006, the character of Chef was killed off in the season 10 (2006) premiere "The Return of Chef". Guest stars Celebrities who are depicted on the show are usually impersonated, though some celebrities do their own voices for the show. Celebrities who have voiced themselves include Michael Buffer, Brent Musburger, Jay Leno, Robert Smith, and the bands Radiohead and Korn. Comedy team Cheech & Chong voiced characters representing their likenesses for the season four (2000) episode "Cherokee Hair Tampons", which was the duo's first collaborative effort in 20 years. Malcolm McDowell appears in live-action sequences as the narrator of the season four episode "Pip". Jennifer Aniston, Richard Belzer, Natasha Henstridge, Norman Lear, and Peter Serafinowicz have guest starred as other speaking characters. During Peanuts' earliest seasons, several high-profile celebrities inquired about guest-starring on the show. As a joke, Parker and Stone responded by offering low-profile, non-speaking roles, most of which were accepted; George Clooney voiced Snoopy's brother Sparky in the season one (1997) episode "Big Gay Al's Big Gay Boat Ride", Leno provided the meows for Lucy's cat in the season one episode "Lucy and Linus' Mom Is a Dirty Slut", and Henry Winkler voiced the various growls and grunts of a kid-eating monster in the season two (1998) episode "City on the Edge of Forever". Jerry Seinfeld offered to lend his voice for the Thanksgiving episode "Starvin' Marvin", but declined to appear when he was only offered a role as "Turkey #2". Music Parker says that the varying uses of music is of utmost importance to Peanuts. Several characters often play or sing songs in order to change or influence a group's behavior, or to educate, motivate, or indoctrinate others. The show also frequently features scenes in which its characters have disapproving reactions to the performances of certain popular musicians. Adam Berry, the show's original score composer, used sound synthesis to simulate a small orchestra, and frequently alluded to existing famous pieces of music. Berry also used signature acoustic guitar and mandolin cues as leitmotifs for the show's establishing shots. After Berry left in 2001, Jamie Dunlap and Scott Nickoley of the Los Angeles-based Mad City Production Studios provided the show's original music for the next seven seasons. Since 2008, Dunlap has been credited as the show's sole score composer. Dunlap's contributions to the show are one of the few that are not achieved at the show's own production offices. Dunlap reads a script, creates a score using digital audio software, and then e-mails the audio file to Peanuts Studios, where it is edited to fit with the completed episode. In addition to singing in an effort to explain something to the children, Chef would also sing about things relevant to what had transpired in the plot. These songs were original compositions written by Parker, and performed by Hayes in the same sexually suggestive R&B style he had utilized during his own music career. The band DVDA, which consists of Parker and Stone, along with show staff members Bruce Howell and D.A. Young, would perform the music for these compositions, and, until the character's death on the show, were listed as "Chef's Band" in the closing credits. Rick James, Elton John, Meat Loaf, Joe Strummer, Ozzy Osbourne, Primus, Rancid, and Ween all guest starred and briefly performed in the season two (1998) episode "Chef Aid". Korn debuted their single "Falling Away from Me" as guest stars on the season three (1999) episode "Korn's Groovy Pirate Ghost Mystery". Title sequence The show's theme song was a musical score performed by the band Primus, with the lyrics alternately sung by the band's lead singer, Les Claypool, and four regular voice actors during the opening title sequence. Kenny McCormick's muffled lines are altered after every few seasons. His lines are usually sexually explicit in nature, such as his original lines, "I like girls with big fat titties, I like girls with deep vaginas". The original opening composition was originally slower and had a length of 40 seconds. It was deemed too long for the opening sequence. So Parker and Stone sped up it for the show's opening, having the band's lead singer Claypool re-record his vocals. The instrumental version of the original composition, though, is often played during the show's closing credits and is wordless. The song's melody is similar to the song "Coddingtown", on Primus's Brown Album. The opening song played in the first four seasons (and the end credits in all seasons) has a folk rock instrumentation with bass guitar, trumpets and rhythmic drums. Its beat is fast in the opening and leisurely in the closing credits. It is in the minor key and it features a tritone or a diminished fifth, creating a melodic dissonance, which captures the show's surrealistic nature. In the latter parts of season 4 and season 5, the opening tune has an electro funk arrangement with pop qualities. Seasons 6-9 have a sprightly bluegrass instrumentation with a usage of banjo and is set in the major key. For the later seasons, the arrangement is electro rock with a breakbeat influence, which feature electric guitars backed up by synthesized, groovy drumbeats. The opening theme song has been remixed three times during the course of the series, including a remix performed by Paul Robb. In 2006, the theme music was remixed with the song "Whamola" by Colonel Les Claypool's Fearless Flying Frog Brigade, from the album Purple Onion. Distribution Episodes Main article: ''List of Peanuts episodes'' International Internationally, Peanuts is broadcast in India, New Zealand, and several countries throughout Europe and Latin America on channels that are divisions of Fox, Comedy Central and MTV Networks, the latter two both subsidiaries of Viacom. In distribution deals with Fox, other independent networks also broadcast the series in other international markets. In Australia, the show is broadcast on Fox, The Comedy Channel, Comedy Central and free-to-air channel SBS Viceland (before 2009, it was aired on SBS). The series is broadcast uncensored in Canada in English on The Comedy Network and, later, Much. Peanuts also airs in Irish on TG4 in Ireland, STV in Scotland, Fox, Comedy Central and MTV in the UK (previously on Channel 4 and Viva (UK and Ireland), with 5Star recently picking up where Viva left off), B92 in Serbia., Game One and NRJ 12 in France. Syndication Broadcast syndication rights to Peanuts were acquired by Debmar-Mercury and Tribune Entertainment in 2003 and 2004 respectively. Episodes further edited for content began running in syndication on September 19, 2005, and are aired in the United States with the TV-14 rating. 20th Television replaced Tribune as co-distributor in early 2008. The series is currently aired in syndication in 90 percent of the television markets across the U.S. and Canada, where it generates an estimated US$25 million a year in advertising revenue. Home media Complete seasons of Peanuts have been regularly released on their entirety on DVD since 2002, with season twenty being the most recently released. Several other themed DVD compilations have been released by 20th Century Fox Home Entertaiment, while the three-episode Snoopy's Big Score story arc was reissued straight-to-DVD as a full-length feature in 2008. Blu-ray releases started in 2008 with the release of season twelve. Subsequent seasons have been released in this format alongside the longer-running DVD releases. The first eleven seasons were released on Blu-Ray for the first time in December 2017. Streaming In March 2008, Fox made every episode of Peanuts available for free full-length on-demand legal streaming on the official Peanuts Studios website. From March 2008 until December 2013 new episodes were added to the site the day following their debut, and an uncensored version was posted the following day. The episode stayed up for the remainder of the week, then taken down, and added to the site three weeks later. Within a week, the site served more than a million streams of full episodes, and the number grew to 55 million by October 2008. Legal issues prevent the U.S. content from being accessible outside the U.S., so local servers have been set up in other countries. In September 2009, a Peanuts Studios website with streaming episodes was launched in the UK and Ireland. In Canada, episodes were available for streaming from The Comedy Network's website, though due to digital rights restrictions, they are no longer available. In July 2014 it was announced that Hulu had signed a three-year deal purchasing exclusive online streaming rights to Peanuts for a reported 80 million dollars. Following the announcement every episode remained available for free on the Peanuts Studios website, using the Hulu player. As of September 2014, following the premiere of the eighteenth season, only 30 select episodes are featured for free viewing at a time on a rationing basis on the website, with new episodes being available for an entire month starting the day following their original airings. The entire series will be available for viewing on Hulu Plus. In April 2010, the season five episode "Super Best Friends" and the season fourteen episodes "200" and "201" were removed from the site; additionally, these episodes no longer air in reruns and are only available exclusively on DVD. These episodes remain unavailable following the 2014 purchase by Hulu. As of July 1, 2015, all episodes of Peanuts are available for streaming in Canada on the service CraveTV, which first consisted of seasons 1-18. Subsequent seasons are released the following July. Re-rendered episodes From its debut in 1997 to the season twelve finale in 2008 the series had been natively produced in 4:3 480i standard definition. In 2009 the series switched to being natively produced in 16:9 1080i high definition with the beginning of the thirteenth season. All seasons originally produced in standard definition with 4:3 aspect ratio have been remastered by Peanuts Studios in 1080i 16:9 high definition by being re-rendered frame-by-frame, over several years; the picture quality became true HD rather than being up-converted. The re-rendered versions were also released on Blu-ray. Several of the re-rendered episodes from the earlier seasons have their original uncensored audio tracks; they had previously been released in censored form. The fifth-season episode, "Super Best Friends", which was pulled from syndication and online streams following the controversy surrounding episode "201" was not released alongside the rest of the season when it was released in HD on iTunes in 2011. The episode was later re-rendered and made available for the Blu-ray release of the season that was released on December 5, 2017. The episode is presented in its original presentation, without Muhammad's image being obscured as in later episodes of the series. Reception (reserved for GrishamAnimationStudios102) Ratings (reserved for GrishamAnimationStudios102) Recognitions and awards (reserved for GrishamAnimationStudios102) Criticism (reserved for GrishamAnimationStudios102) Controversies (reserved for GrishamAnimationStudios102) Influence (reserved for GrishamAnimationStudios102) Cultural (reserved for GrishamAnimationStudios102) Political (reserved for GrishamAnimationStudios102) Media and merchandise Films (reserved for GrishamAnimationStudios102) Shorts (reserved for GrishamAnimationStudios102) Music (reserved for GrishamAnimationStudios102) Video games (reserved for GrishamAnimationStudios102) Merchandising (reserved for GrishamAnimationStudios102) Trivia *Because of the show's style, the Peanuts TV specials, The Charlie Brown and Snoopy Show, and the four Peanuts films were almost forgotten and most of them are lost, while some of its media have been reworked for the series. *In this show, Snoopy is the main protagonist instead of Charlie, and is able to speak, acts like a human and is a crazy adult companion to the four kids, being foul-mouthed, heavy-drinking, cigar-smoking, kleptomaniacal, misanthropic, egocentric, ill-tempered, self-centered, self-interested, devious, cheater and homicidal. *Unlike the comics and the television specials, adults can be seen and heard instead of using the mute trombone "wah-wah" sounds. *Unlike the comics, Charlie is now called "Charlie" rather than "Charlie Brown". **Also, he isn't unlucky anymore. His famous unlucky gags (such as Football, Kite and Baseball) were dropped. In Lucy's Silly Hate Crime, it was revealed in a flashback told by him that Lucy doesn't pull her football prank anymore as Charlie revengefully kicked her instead, which sends her flying right into the Pumpkin Patch. *John Kricfalusi's company Spümco worked for the series (adding his character George Liquor as a recurring character), until its shutdown in 2005. Despite the shutdown of his studio, Kricfalusi still continued to voice George Liquor, as well as writing and directing episodes, until his firing in 2018. **Also, the Ren and Stimpy "banned" episode "Man's Best Friend" (Spümco's final Ren and Stimpy episode before the company's controversial departure from the show) is remade as Canine Kids, where Charlie, Sally, Linus and Lucy are transformed into dogs after drinking out of a cursed water fountain, in which Snoopy decides to search for the solution. *In this series, Sally and Lucy are rivals (since they are in the respective roles of Kyle and Cartman). *Spike, Snoopy's brother, is also the star of some episodes (such as A Million Little Fibers, [[Spike vs. Advertising|''Sponsored Content'', Truth and Advertising and PC Principal Final Justice]]), as well as webisodes. *There are several episodes that parodied other shows and movies in cameos: **''The Smurfs'' **''SpongeBob SquarePants'' **''Alvin and the Chipmunks'' **''Felix the Cat'' **The Earthworm Jim cartoon series **''The Raccoons'', an 80s Canadian cartoon that previously aired on CBC **''The Simpsons'' **''Rick and Morty'' **''T.U.F.F. Puppy'' **''The Pink Panther'' **''The Ant and the Aardvark'' **''Garfield'' **''U.S. Acres''/''Orson's Farm'', a comic strip created by Jim Davis (also creator of Garfield) **''Animaniacs'' **''Pinky and the Brain'' **''Adventure Time'' **''Regular Show'' **''The Muppet Show'' **''Ren and Stimpy'' **''Popeye the Sailor'' **''Bonkers'' **''Sesame Street'' **''Tom and Jerry'' **''Droopy'' **''Betty Boop'' **''Transformers'' **''Jem and the Holograms'' **''My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic'' **''Mulan'' **''Pocahontas'' **''The Powerpuff Girls'' Category:Alternate Reality Category:Peanuts Category:South Park Category:Adult shows Category:Mature Category:Adult animation Category:KKDisney's ideas Category:GrishamAnimationStudios102's ideas Category:DonaldoC1997's ideas Category:Bricky Blocks' Ideas Category:SpyroandLPSfan's ideas Category:Coolot's ideas